Cataclysm: Day One Results

It's hard to believe that it is only Wednesday - Cata is only a little more than a day old. We already have realm 85s, capped professions, and yes - the Europeans are already raiding. Here's what I've been up to in the past 24 hours - somehow I ended up doing almost nothing close to what I planned!

Character Update

Well - I went from maining one character to another overnight - so completely forget my week one cataclysm plans from the last post. Economically - it's been a tad disappointing, but it hasn't been a total loss. I'm now leveling a druid for raiding content, and my warrior (which is my miner) is still sitting in an inn in Stormwind, unfortunately.

I managed to just hit 83 (about 200k xp in) just before my way into work this morning. Total play time for 80-81 was just over 2 hours. Quest turn ins from wotlk, a single run of blackrock caverns, and some light questing in Hyjal was enough to get my first level.

81-82 was a battle, as it occured during peak hours last night in Hyjal, so I retreated back to BRC for some relatively "fast" XP gains. This was a bit of a chore, but I was still able to clock in a level in just under 4 hours.

Then came 82. This was glorious. Everyone saying to get to Deepholm immediately has been dead on. Firstly - and as much as it pains me to say this as I level a dual crafter - there's ore everywhere. Relatively speaking, the zone is far less crowded, and the zone flows beautifully. I think it took me a mere 2.5 hours in Deepholm + a single Stonecore run to ding 83.

All in all, this has left me at 83, sitting in the Gadgetzan inn gaining rested XP as I get ready for a trek into Uldum this evening. I'm hoping to stay ahead of the curve, and finish up level 84 tonight in 4 hours or so. Recapping, quickly - here are the key takeaways from this:

• It is very worth discovering and running each of the dungeons once. First runs of a dungeon are worth an insane amount of XP per hour. BRC quests were netting me 102k xp per, and the entire run took about 25 minutes (with a wipe)
• Getting to deepholm will make your life much easier. Your window for this might run out as early as tonight, so endure the early crowds and get there. Even when the servers die down - Deepholm simply flows a little better than Hyjal. Don't even think about Vash. Psh. Seahorses.
• Even with crowds, the first 3 levels are definitely doable in about a 10 hour clip. Faster is definitely possible, obviously.
• If you aren't in a guild - you 100% need to be. The level 2 guild perk is almost immediately attainable and 5% more XP is extremely helpful early on

What went wrong, what's next

Obviously I've failed to capitalize on any significant gold earnings for the time being. I made a snap decision to sacrifice short term gold for some raid oriented gains. My hope is to cap 85 on my new main by Friday. After that, the plan is to shift gears a bit and devote my time on the druid solely to running heroics/dungeons for gear. All other time will be devoted to leveling the warrior gatherer to amass a ton of ore.

I absolutely don't want to get behind on jewelcrafting, I've already missed one token, my hope is to catch up on everything by this weekend at worst.

All in all - I've been happy with the expansion. The excitement of leveling - the crowds, while annoying, have been part of a unique experience you really can't get outside of release week.

That's it for today. Posts this week will likely be a little quicker and less in depth because - let's face it, I'm busy playing Cataclysm! Such is the life of the abbreviated wow player, but I'll definitely be sure to at a minimum share my results and lessons learned from my experiences. Best of luck in your week one gold and leveling goals!